Author: apokalyptik

apokalyptikhttp://blog.apokalyptik.com/

Chiming in on the “Cross Domain Ajax” issue

Ok… well… perhaps thats a bit hasty, thats like calling a problem that you’re having with an elephant a “tusk issue” when there are plenty of other good reasons to have a problem with an elephant… A tusk, does not, an elephant make. And I think therin lies a large part of the confusion! XMLHttpRequest doesnt allow cross domain communication. There. I’ve said it. The dirty little secret is out. AJAX has absolutely nothing to do with it. Saying this about AJAX is like calling the Mona Lisa a BRUSH. Thats absurd, right? No, its a very good analogy!

The time has come to give “AJAX” its due on the side of the browser. The issue should be addressed in this way: XMLHttpRequest should function as it always has. It was made, everyone knows it, its loved, and for 90% of all AJAX it is very chewy goodness! Another function needs to be implimented, and browsers need to handle it in much the same way that cookies and stored passwords are handled.

An alert pops up: Domain ABC.COM is trying to access to XZY.COM with your computer. We cannot ensure what data ABC.COM wants to obtain, how they might useit, or how safe this might be. Unless you TRUST ABC.COM, and this communication makes sense, you are advised NOT to allow this communication. Do you want to allow this? Checkbox: “always”, Button: “Allow”, Button: “Deny”

At which point the action is allowed or denied. Ifthe user checked always then the browser should add a one way trust to an internal ACL. ABC.COM is alowed to initiate and maintain communication with XYZ.COM.

XMLGlobalHttpRequest needs, and deserves to be its own beast. Whether the world really *needs* this technology, and whether it’s safe to give it to the world… Well… Historically technologists gives the world tools — which are inherently neutral — and they let the world decide to use them for better or for worse. I dont see any reason for the same natural darwinism not to be applied here.

The next releases of FF, IE, and Opera should have these features in them. Because browsers are in the market to give people what they want… and once this idea comes into use they will realize that they wanted it all along, just never knew it.

Dont tell me a dog fed on kibble doesnt want some real meat… oh yes… it does… but does it *know* it wants kibble? And does not knowing make the desire any less strong? Food (chuckle) for throught

Oh the unbridled anger

You leave your VMWare instance running an important job… Only to come back in the morning to find “Your computer has been updated” You… Took it upon… YOURSELF… to stop… MY ENTIRE WORLD… ARGH!

Needless to say the options for automatic update have been changed.  You would think that it would be fairly trivial to put in some checks for basic courtesy… just a list of conditions that should have to be met before microsoft should allow themselves to think that the PC is clear enough to reboot.  The first alarm should be *OH LOOK I’M RUNNING UNDER HEAVY LOAD” DUH!

How To: Safely Get rid of a paper wasps nest

Ingredients:

  • 2 Cans RAID Wasp and Hornet Killer, $7 at the Home Depot
  • 1 80″x80″ patch of burlap – fine mesh, $4 at the Home Depot
  • 1 Roll duct tape
  • 1 Sweatshirt (or tight knit sweater), long sleeved
  • 1 Pair leather work gloves.
  • 1 pais scisors
  • 1 source of light, preferrably NOT a flashlight

Prepare: It is night time, or early morning, the sun is not out, and its as cold as it’s going to get. Be fully dressed: shoes, socks, long jeans, shirt. First read the directions on the can of Raid (do this *now*) and remove the safety device so that the cans are usable. both these things will be hard to do once you’re dressed. Also secure an escape route… it should be indirect, and secluded. It should not be far from secure shelter with easy access. but make sure there are *NO* obstacles in the way… getting there should be easy.
Dress: Cut a 3 foot by 3 foot square of the burlap cloth (which is see-through up close) and put it over your head so that one of the corners of the square comes down and ends at your chest. Slip the Sweatshirt on over the burlap. This should force the burlap into a helmet of sorts. pull your socks up OVER your jeans, and duct tape (half on socks hald on jeans) to prevent any insect entry. Pull your gloves on over your sweater. and duct tape to prevent insect entry.

Attack: At this point you should resemble, to your neighbors, something our of a horror film. Take your scarecrow-from-hell looking self on over to the wasps nest…. Indirectly, if possible, illuminate the wasps nest. From as far back as possible soak the ever loving heck out of the nest and closely surrounding area with an entire can of raid. If you missed some, or your aim was off, or if you’re getting some perverse gleee from this carnage, use the other can as well. The wasps should not attack, they should fall to the ground… but if they do, try not to panick… you’re prepared. They shouldn’t be able to get close to you.

Retreat: If there are wasps *on* you, knock them off and or squish them as best as possible. Move to your staging area which is away from and not easily accessible by the wasps… Remove the tape from the gloves (using scisors to speed things up) and remove the gloves, place them aside as they could be covered with a poison that is toxic to you as well. Remove the sweatchirt. Remove the tape from the ankles, move inside shelter. Close your windows, turn on the AC, and get some sleep. The nest should be dead in the morning.

Cleanup: after a day or two there should be no sign of life. Remove the nest so thsat no other animals decide to use it as a home.

On religion and law (and how unfashionable my views truly are in comparison with my peers)

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

I just happened to see this quote (which, by the way, happens to be the 1st ammendment) while doing some surfing tonight, and it hit a small chord withing me when I read it. I also drudged this up, our fourteenth amendment

Section. 1. All persons born or naturalized in the United States and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.

Section. 2. Representatives shall be apportioned among the several States according to their respective numbers, counting the whole number of persons in each State, excluding Indians not taxed. But when the right to vote at any election for the choice of electors for President and Vice President of the United States, Representatives in Congress, the Executive and Judicial officers of a State, or the members of the Legislature thereof, is denied to any of the male inhabitants of such State, being twenty-one years of age, and citizens of the United States, or in any way abridged, except for participation in rebellion, or other crime, the basis of representation therein shall be reduced in the proportion which the number of such male citizens shall bear to the whole number of male citizens twenty-one years of age in such State.

Section. 3. No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any State, who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any State legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any State, to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof. But Congress may by a vote of two-thirds of each House, remove such disability.

Section. 4. The validity of the public debt of the United States, authorized by law, including debts incurred for payment of pensions and bounties for services in suppressing insurrection or rebellion, shall not be questioned. But neither the United States nor any State shall assume or pay any debt or obligation incurred in aid of insurrection or rebellion against the United States, or any claim for the loss or emancipation of any slave; but all such debts, obligations and claims shall be held illegal and void.

Section. 5. The Congress shall have power to enforce, by appropriate legislation, the provisions of this article.

Pay special attention to Section 1. OK, so back to the first amendment… the word “respect” here seems ambiguous, but I think that the meaning most befitting the tone of the overal amendment is “Relation; reference.” Meaning that it should not only make no laws specifically favorable to one or more religions but (and this is the part that seems to be lost lately) it should make no laws specifically disfavorable to one or more religions.

What I dont get is why everything is a fight *for* christian icons in the courts, or *against christian icons in the courts. It seems pretty clear to me that the courts are not the place to discuss whether or not something or someone should show a christian, hindu, chineese, islamic, jewish, druidic, egyptian, or otherwise religious symbol.

As for architecture on government property… All governments go through various phases… because the population which upholds the government goes through different phases. It seems to be an ignorant position, to me, that we should eradicate evidence of our past because the philosophies of the current are driving us now. This goes for all of our mistakes AND our successes.

We should not erase the slave trade from our history books. It happened, and we partook, we were wrong, and we’ve moved on. Even if it’s embarrassing and saddening we SHOULD know, and SHOULD remember…

It’s as important to understand that as it is to understand the religious background and beliefes to which the people who founded this nation paid homage. Whether or not the government today holds the same moral and religious structures and codes as the gasoline which drives their engine is something which will show next century in the artwork and architecture whic comprises the buildings associated with out government.

The internet is here, shall we burn down the libraries because of it?

Seeking to destroy evidence of those who came before is the halmark of an ignorant midset. Just look at the dark ages which followed the loss of the library of alexandria. The sun still shown (for it was not dark), but the light of the importance of the progress, however backward, of those who had come before had been extinguished, and it was not until the light of the industrial revolution did we once again look upon the lost secrets which died centuries ago with the elders to whome we had turned our backs. And yet still we seek to learn from the ashes of the midset of destruction of past ideas and are balked by the brute of the ignorant.